Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Sometimes you just have to bake a cake for no reason. It's not anyone's birthday; it's not your anniversary. You just want to make something sweet, delicious, and beautiful. Well, I did have a few reasons for this cake: first, my mom left me a bunch of lemons from her Meyer lemon tree; second, I wanted to make dessert; and, third, I'm hosting this month's Food'N'Flix. For the April edition of  Food'N'Flix , I am inviting any bloggers who want to join me to  watch  Coco*. Coco  tells the story of Miguel Rivera whose great-great-grandmother was abandoned by her musician husband; she has enforced an iron-clad policy against music ever since. "No music!" she bellows. And each subsequent generation has gone into the family business of making shoes. Add in stunning animation, lively music - yes, music! - and family conflict and you have a wonderful movie for all ages. But, don't just take my word for it. Watch and join me in m

When I saw that the April Fantastical Food Fight focus was 'strawberry shortcake', I paused. The first thing that came to mind were these dolls from the 80s! I really disliked dolls; my grandmother tried and tried to get me fascinated with Barbie. But, when she bought me these dolls, I was moderately intrigued. I remember her being thrilled and she bought me every single doll in the series - Apple Dumplin, Rasberry Tart, Mint Tulip, Cherry Cuddler, and more. When I was a kid, I loved that the dolls' hair smelled. Now I wonder: What kind of awful chemicals made those dolls smell for so long!?! image from toysrus.com In any case, I started asking around. "What do you think of when I say 'strawberry shortcake?'" Friends and family all had differing answers. Some said the base was a sweetened biscuit; others were adamant that the base was a pound cake. Most intriguing to me was an angel food cake. But I decided to do more research and start recipe te

Another week, another recipe for the Kitchen Matrix Project, named after Mark Bittman's  Kitchen Matrix  cookbook. You can read about it:  here . This month, I picked the recipes for the month am I'm very excited about the dishes and the bloggers who are joining me. And I am thrilled with how simple these recipes are to make.  This week, I picked 'Pork Ribs + 9 Ways' for the group. I had a tough time deciding because I was intrigued by the Salt and Pepper-Grilled Baby Back Ribs, Pasta with Pork Ribs, and the Smoked and Roasted Spare Ribs with Sage and Ginger. But those will be for another day. Stay tuned. More Ribs An InLinkz Link-up Whose Ribs?!? Every time we have ribs for dinner, we chuckle about this story. D, my Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf, was about 3-years-old at the time, riding in the cart with me at the grocery store. He asked me about the rack of ribs in the cart, pointing, "Mommy, what are those?" Ribs, I answered.

If there was ever any doubt that I adore books, you need only look at my Foodie Reads Challenges  - past and present . I published posts about 36 books in 2016, 38 in 2017; already this year, I've blogged over a dozen.  And these are just the ones that have a food component or inspire me to create a dish. I read all the time and I read books. Real books. I don't have a kindle or any other kind of ebook reader. R does and it certainly helps when we go on trips - he brings that device and the rest of us haul a tote full of heavy books. Still, I am a book-gal. Sadly, we don't have many brick and mortar bookstores on the Monterey Peninsula any more. Whenever we head up to the Bay Area, bookstores are always on our list of places to stop. When The Friends of the Marina Library opened their Friends' Community Bookstore at the end of last year, I put it on my 'to-do' list. So, when D and I had some free time this past weekend, we drove to Marina

Last week, the Enthusiastic Kithchen Elf and I were playing a foodie trivia game. I won, but he held his own; he did complain that I had an advantage with the questions about wine and liqueurs. Probably true. But he knew more about celebrity chefs than I did! One of the questions was about the seafood-based stew from France. He talked about Moqueca from Brazil and Cioppino from San Francisco, but couldn't come up with the name of the one from France. So, I told him I'd make it for him this weekend. And I figured it would be the perfect celebration dinner for Jake's and my 18th wedding anniversary. It was! It just so happened that this dish was mentioned in Cooking for Picasso: A Novel by Camille Aubray.* I had originally picked up this book as it was supposed to be one of our Cook the Books' selections for the year, but the hostesses swapped it out for another. So, I picked it up yesterday while everyone else worked on school projects. I crawled under t

For dessert last Friday, I wanted to serve  Gâteau Aux Pommes De Grand-Mère , but couldn't find a definitive version. It seems that everyone's French grandmother had her own version. Seriously.  So, I read, researched, and combined elements of various recipes into two different versions.  Then we taste-tested and one bubbled to to the top as the favorite. That's the version I'll share here. But what they had in common: apples, brandy, eggs, flour, sugar, and vanilla. The leavening agent was different and one included French yogurt in the batter. Ingredients 8 T (1 stick) butter, melted 2 eggs 3/4 C organic granulated sugar 1 t vanilla bean paste 1/2 t pure lemon extract 3 T brandy 3/4 C flour 1/4 t baking powder 4 apples, peeled and thinly sliced (I used organic Pacific Rose apples) Procedure Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a baking dish; I used an 8" pie pan.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, melted